This year’s River Rave: Smoking Guns, hot Dogs, new Filter

Thursday

The annual one-day festival, which kicks off at 4 p.m. Sunday at the Tweeter Center in Mansfield, has a stacked lineup.

The big story with Sunday’s WBCN River Rave 2008 is the reunion of Stone Temple Pilots, and with good reason – it’s no small deal when one of the definitive bands of the ’90s returns to the limelight.

But the annual one-day festival, which kicks off at 4 p.m. Sunday at the Tweeter Center in Mansfield, has plenty of other enticing subplots on a stacked lineup. Here are three:

Filtering out the bad vibes

At a recent CD release show at New York’s Mercury Lounge, Filter frontman Richard Patrick was full of rambunctious excitement, exhorting the crowd and marking an official welcome back. It’s been a long five years since the industrial rock band let loose with chart toppers like "Hey Man, Nice Shot'' and "Take a Picture.''

But the one-hour Mercury showcase suggested Filter, even with three-quarters new bandmates, was still a dynamic, hard-rocking force, brilliant in its use of distortion and tasteful guitar fuzz.

The Filter live experience is still a winner, in other words, even if Patrick is hurling water into the crowd, not other things.

"I thought my audience had grown a little more mature. Before, it would have been beer, not water!'' Patrick said, laughing, in an interview the day after the show. "But by the end of the show, every person had that look of total satisfaction. It’s so nice to be back in that setting.''

Filter abruptly went on hiatus in fall 2002, after Patrick checked himself into rehab for alcohol abuse during a tour behind "The Amalgamut'' (2002). The band stayed dormant, but in the years that followed, Patrick appeared with a pair of supergroups, first the Damning Well in 2003, and then, with STP’s Robert and Dan DiLeo, Army of Anyone in 2006.

"On that tour, every time we did a Filter song, I’d light up and get really excited,'' Patrick recalled. "The DiLeos would say to me, ‘It’s amazing how you light up.’ So then I knew it was time to go do a Filter record.''

Filter’s new album, "Anthems for the Damned,'' is full of political skewers and angry paranoia (there are plenty of war references, a subject close to Patrick’s heart considering former Filter bassist Frank Cavanagh is a U.S. Army Reserve sergeant serving in Iraq).

The album also leaves no doubt that Patrick didn’t throw out his songwriting talents with his hard-partying ways – or his sense of collaboration. His new bandmates, which include guitarist Mitch Marlow, bassist John Spiker and drummer Mika Fineo, are younger, but even still they’re the ones who look to be keeping up with Patrick, a manic ball of energy in the best sense of a frontman.

"I think they’re the first band that’s completely here because they are talented,'' Patrick said. "They’re all in their late 20s and dying to be heard, and they’re all here because they love to do it, not just, ‘Hey you’re here because you’re my drinking buddy.’ And me, I know there’s a difference in how I sing. Singing is an incredibly physical event that not a lot of people can do. Now that I don’t have six beers and a ton of cigarettes in me, it’s definitely noticeably easier. And the reality – when you know that – is that the anxiety is gone. I know I can do it.''

Hot Dogs

The Street Dogs are nothing if not scrappy, and their fourth album, "State of Grace,'' which comes out July 8, finds them on the attack with the same toothy snarl they brought to their earliest club gigs in 2002. A stage the size of the River Rave’s doesn’t exactly faze them, seeing as they’re veterans of the Warped Tour.

"We go into every live set with the same ‘we have to kill it’ attitude,'' said guitarist Tobe Bean. "You have to always think of it as you are there to win over fans and never become too comfortable and half step it. We bring the sweaty packed clubs to the amphitheater – Mike will bring it straight into the barricade and all the way up to the lights. We don’t really let the size of a venue affect us. We can bring it anywhere and anytime.''

The Dogs shot to the local spotlight shortly after their first shows and first album, "Savin Ill,'' buoyed by the name cache of frontman Mike McColgan, who’d previously fronted the Dropkick Murphys. Each succeeding album has increased their exposure a bit more, and for "State of Grace,'' they decided to retain producer Ted Hutt ("He’s really more a member of the band than just a producer,'' Bean said), and sign with Hellcat Records, an L.A.-based independent and longtime stronghold for ska, punk, hardcore and similar genres.

"Ted really pushed us in some new directions that we were uncomfortable with at first but we really found our groove and made an album that we are extremely proud of,'' Bean said. "And as for Hellcat. First and foremost, they get us. They really made us feel worth something in their approach to us and I can say so far they are doing a fantastic job setting up this record and supporting the growth of the band.''

After the River Rave, the Street Dogs will be on the road with the 2008 Warped Tour throughout summer, and then lining up headlining dates both here and in Europe. They’ll be back in December for their annual local throwdowns Wreck the Halls as well.

What keeps them writing such propulsive, red meat songs?

"You got me there. I think there is some kind of magic that sometimes a band manages to find when recording and it just transfers to tape,'' Bean said. "Take ‘London Calling’ for instance, the drums and bass just have this haunting vibe that when it first kicks in, it rattles my bones even after a million times hearing it. I guess that’s what makes a great song – a song that just somehow strikes a chord in your soul.''

Glory road goes on

The best story of the River Rave yet might be Scituate natives Girls Guns & Glory, who are fresh off both a CD release party for "Inverted Valentine,'' and also their win at the WBCN Rock ’n’ Roll Rumble in April. That victory was what earned them a spot on the River Rave slate.

The challenge now, said frontman Ward Hayden, is projecting the Girls Guns & Glory sound onto what to date will be one of its biggest stages.

"We’re a band that is typically pretty diverse in regards to songs that vary in feeling and tempo,'' Hayden said. "But I think for a show like the River Rave we’re going to put a set together with a lot of our high-energy and uptempo material. I’ve been to the River Rave in years past and it’s always a fun-loving, energetic crowd, so I figure, when in Rome!''